Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Montana Wildlife
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Conservation of migratory populations requires an understanding of how sage-grouse move between seasonal habitats to complete their life cycle. If habitat pathways facilitate movement then managers may need to extend conservation actions to maintain habitats that link seasonal ranges. This project is a collaborative effort and we will affix GPS transmitters to 40 adult and yearling female sage-grouse to investigate migratory movements. Location data for this population will track migration from nesting and brood rearing habitats to seasonal habitat used in winter. Locations will be used to characterize number of stopovers that birds use during migration and amount of time birds spend at each between successive movements.